I hadn't told Miles what we would be doing today, so I navigated us over to Tokyo One Piece Tower. There is a small 3 floored "amusement park" of One Piece, a cartoon and comic, of which Miles has sporadically both watched and read. Before entering, you watch a movie presented on all sides which was cute. Inside, there are many statues, for lack of a better word, of the characters. The theme was impeccable. It was also a Thursday afternoon, so the place was nearly empty. We never had to wait for anything.
The park was made up of walk through areas, which have a combination of statues, videos, and other special effects. Additionally, there are free games to participate in. We started with a catapult game.
We also participated in a gambling game, where we had 4 colors to enter as our guess in three different games. There were only five people in the room, including us, and I won. I received a card as a reward.
The park offered a live show, and when we entered, we were ushered to the front, where kids were given preferential seating. I have never been a fan of these kinds of shows and have seen plenty of Disney's shows in the past. This show, however, was incredible. Even though it was all obviously in Japanese, the dancing, choreography, energy, and creativity were all incredible. The specialeffects were also really unique, including the use of movable screens that added videos that the actors interacted with and moved around and a blow up fist that shot out from the back to make it look like the main character had expanded his hand in a cartoonlike fashion.
There was a haunted house to walk through, and in the most memorable walk through experience, there were two mirror mazes and a bridge with fire swirling around it, that gave a believable effect of us spinning.
Even the escalators had pictures of the characters on it.
We finished our time at the park by taking part in a scavenger hunt. We were given a sluglike creature and were given the task of looking for circular runes on the walls all over, and then to press a button that lit up when you put the slug against that spot. We found about eight or nine, and got a high score, but did not find the one that was needed to "win." It was still fun though.
Next, we stopped briefly at a traditional craft store that had crafts from all over Japan. There were many beautiful pieces and some of them were extraordinarily expensive. The only ones that happened to jump out at me happened to be the latter. Miles sat himself at the entrance of the store, to watch a video of people making different crafts and showing the process. He surprisingly found this to be fascinating.
We ended the night by having dinner at a restaurant called Ninja Akasaka. The entrance is a locked door on the street.
While waiting for this door to open, as my attempts had failed, four Australians in their mid 20s, who were also waiting in line, struck up a conversation with me. I wish we had more time, but all of a sudden the door opened and we were ushered in. The place was dark throughout, and therefore I really got no usable pictures, so I will have to describe it in words.
First, you walked down a flight of steps to a receptionist that asked that we wait for our ninja We then heard a voice, and someone popped in through a trap door, to escort us to our table. He showed us that the wall we were standing next to was not what it seemed. Once through, we walked down narrow stairs and low ceilings until we reached a break in the floor, with a large treasure chest down the hole. By snapping his fingers, or something similar, a bridge came down from the wall, allowing us to cross. I told him that the treasure was preferable. We continued on until we were in the restaurant, which was a dark, winding street with little alcoves for tables. Ours was up a flight of steps which let us overlook our part of the neighborhood.
The food was served in many small courses, with ninja themed foods, served by a ninja that spoke like she was revealing a ninja secret with each meal.
Once the main course was brought out, another ninja visited our table and performed magic tricks that bedazzled Miles. In the end, he was allowed to keep a card that he had written his name on, which was involved in one of the card tricks. They even themed the exit well. Our host ninja opened a door into a flaming wall(on a screen, not real flames) and then made the flames go away so we could exit. As we walked out, a nonja ran out behind us and opened a scroll that said something to the effect of "Please come back soon!" It was all very unique and incredibly well put together.
Tomorrow, I have another surprise awaiting Miles.
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